Come Alive Ch. 07

She put on a t-shirt and stormed off to the bow pulpit; a minute later Rolf came up carrying a huge sandwich. Taggart took one look at the thing and felt nauseated.

"What is grandma-ma doing up there?"

"Looking for prudes."

"Prudes? What is this?"

"Rare deep-sea creatures, related to mermaids, I think - only with better knockers."

"Knockers?"

"Tits, Rolf."

"Ah. You know, I've never understood why some people are so fascinated with what is, really, just a milk gland?"

"Really, you don't say? Well, tell Princess Leia up there I'm feeling a little under the weather, and I'm going below to take a nap."

"Princess Leia...I love it!"

"I'm sure she will too."

+++++

When his head hit the pillow he felt sleep racing inward, and he could just feel Clyde laying along his back, then he felt Clyde's face draping over his neck, and so Taggart fell asleep with the pup's nostrils atop an ear, the sounds of the dog's breath filling his mind as sleep came to him. He was only vaguely aware of the spinnaker coming down, and in seconds he fell back into a deep sleep once again.

He felt a hand slipping inside his shorts a while later, and when he felt the quiet motions of a cool fondling hand his eyes jerked open. His cabin was in dim light just then, and then he felt his shorts sliding down his legs, a mouth drawing him inside that nether warmth. He looked down, saw Dina between his legs, and he watched her mouth bringing him close to the edge. She sensed the moment and he just knew she would pull away, but no, she took him all the way home, taking all he had to give, holding him inside her swirling ecstasy as he fell away.

She looked up, looked into his eyes.

"I was about to start dinner," she smiled, "and I wondered if you might enjoy something to eat."

He nodded, helped her straddle his face, and he took her all the way there, too. He felt the first tremor begin in the thighs, then as a fluttering in her belly. She was still shaking when she imploded and the remnants of her moment fell on him like a cool rain on hot pavement.

She was beside him in the next moment, her hands cupping his face while she said the most amazing things, words like rain to a soul as parched as Taggart's, and when she left to make their dinner he knew something profound had passed between them. Something elemental, some kind of awakening he had never experienced before and, he knew, something that would never happen again.

He lay there listening to the sounds of the sea on the other side of the hull, to the gentle gurgling of water passing as Time Bandit made her way into the night.

'What the hell just happened?' he thought as he stepped into the shower and soaped away the evidence. He brushed his teeth then looked at himself in the mirror, all the while wondering who and what he was looking at. Then he brushed his hair and clumps came loose, clinging to the bristles as if they were clinging to life. He ran his fingers through his hair and more broke free...

"I am not going to cry," he said as the shedded evidence of his death drifted free and settled on the floor.

He saw Clyde out of the corner of his eye and turned to face his newest friend. "Don't worry, boy. I'm not going anywhere."

But Clyde wasn't buying it. He looked at Taggart for a while longer, then curled up on the bed and closed his eyes.

+++++

The channel that led to Oslo was, essentially, a fjord. An almost sixty mile long fjord.

Yet the city was surrounded by low, rolling hills, and not the jagged spires he'd found north of Bergen. The city itself seemed to spread out along the shores of its massive harbor, yet, as Time Bandit approached the port Taggart could not see any of the industrial blight that surrounded most ports he had seen or been to before. Instead, he saw the ramparts of old forts, ornate copper spires of church steeples, and an incredible array of sailboat marinas almost everywhere he looked.

"Man...this is a big city," he sighed as they sailed past a cruise ship terminal in the city center. "I wasn't expecting so many cruise ships..."

"A sign of the times, I suppose. I went to medical school here," Dina added. "Oslo is a great city, but there have been growing pains. Still, I feel reborn just being here again."

"I can see why," Taggart said, eyeing the row of cruise ships with misgiving.

"Mom hardly ever brings us here," Rolf added, looking at Henry. "There's a great Indian place, though."

"When is my appointment?" Henry asked, checking the boy's expression.

"The day after tomorrow, at 0900."

"Okay, Rolf, Indian it is, but - you're buyin'!"

At the west end of the cruise ship terminal, Bandit approached the Kongen Marina and tied up outside the office. They were two days early for their reservation; Taggart hoped they'd have space available because the location looked decent for easily getting around the city. They were in luck, and Taggart arranged for an engine inspection and oil change while they were here. Bandit ended up tied off near a restaurant, a rowdy waterfront party-hearty place with loud music and tourists in Hawaiian shirts. Rolf and Dina worked on hosing down the deck and rinsing the sails with fresh water while Henry got shore power running, but he went below when his right arm twitched violently. When he came topsides again a genuinely huge motor yacht, complete with helicopter and two Donzi ski boats, pulled into the space located at the end of the T-shaped pier; several uniformed deck hands jumped onto the dock and began tying off the monster, while an engineer hooked up their own version of a shore power cord - which was about as big around as a sumo wrestlers thigh.

Taggart looked at the ship and shook his head. The thing had almost completely obscured the sun and now, instead of a nice harbor view, he had a great view of the ship's side-mounted exhaust ports. And, as the engines were still running, he suddenly realized he was being gassed by the mega-tons of diesel exhaust-spewing from those very same ports. He dove below and closed all the hatches and port lights, then the companionway hatch after he got back into the cockpit. He turned to Dina and Rolf, motioned to them to get clear of the fumes and they all jumped to the dock, coughing all the way, while he carried Clyde over. It took a half-hour for the ship's captain to turn off the engines, and by then the entire marina was awash in diesel fumes, and Rolf had to wash the decks down again as diesel soot now covered everything.

"Let's change and get out of here," Taggart said, and they all went below to wash off the grime and change clothes, then they took a taxi into the city.

"You know," Dina opined, "there are better restaurants here than Indian..."

"Probably so," Henry tossed back. "And you get to choose tomorrow."

Mollified, she sat back at looked at the city as they made their way to dinner.

"Do all big yachts stink so much?" Rolf asked.

Taggart shrugged. "I've heard the quality of the engine installation makes a big difference, the quality of fuel, too, but I've never been docked next to one like that before. If we were asleep down below I'm not sure we'd survive without those carbon monoxide monitors. Which reminds me, I need to replace the back-up batteries tonight."

After dinner, Dina took them to the old town and they walked the tourist trail for a while - until she looked at Henry and decided it was time to get him back to the Bandit and medicated. At one point his left leg jerked and he almost lost his footing, though Rolf caught him, and by the time they made it back to the marina his hands and head were jerking badly.

"I feel like one of those plastic dog statues with the bobbing heads people put on their dashboards," he sighed. "Bet that makes a pretty sight."

"I could hardly notice it," Rolf said, now concerned.

"Nicely put, Amigo. I'll make a liar out of you yet."

Dina shook her head at that one.

He put his arms around Dina as they walked out the pier to Bandit, and the decks were once again coated in thick, oily soot. "Must be the cruise ships," Taggart said, looking at the now empty terminal. "Four of those foul things leaving at one time must really crucify the air quality around here."

By the time they were halfway out to Bandit, he could see the Russian flag flying off the mega-yachts stern, and the interior of the upper saloon was pulsing with strobes and grinding heavy metal music.

"Oh, this is just priceless," he sighed as they stepped onto Bandit's deck. "Anyone wanna dance?"

The music was blaring out here, next to the yacht, and there looked to be about two dozen people dancing - and snorting cocaine - but then Rolf laughed and pointed...

and Taggart followed the finger to the ship's flying bridge...

A guy and two girls were up there screwing, and another girl was filming the action. Dina stared wide-eyed at the display for a moment, then she told Rolf to go below...

"Bullshit," Henry cried. "You're depriving the boy of a decent, well-rounded education. C'mon, Amigo. Find a good seat and I'll give you the play-by-play. Dina? You wanna grab a couple of beers and join us?"

Scowling, she ducked below - but a minute later she came topsides carrying three bottles of non-alcoholic beer - and two bottles of medicine.

One of the girls was on her knees working the guy over pretty good; he was holding the second girl inverted so he could 'eat at the Y,' and the girls were yowling like alley cats in heat as they passed the guy's tool between their waiting mouths. Then the girl on her knees hit the short strokes, commanding the guys full attention, and he returned the favor to the inverted girl which produced a series of screams that sounded like a wailing air-raid siren...

Rolf was bug-eyed by that point, though he'd crossed his legs after a minute or so of the performance.

He whispered to Dina at that point: "We need to get that boy laid. He looks like a tripod..."

Dina, taking a sip from her beer at the time, snorted and coughed - spraying the cockpit with beer before she ran below. He heard her below: 'is that laughter?' he said to himself, grinning.

"That's quite a show they're putting on, ain't it?"

Rolf nodded and grinned salaciously.

"You done the deed yet?"

"What?"

"You know...the hunka-chunka...?"

"What is that?" the boy asked.

"Well, not to put too fine a point on things, but that..." Taggart said, pointing to the triptych on the boat next door, "is the hunka-chunka."

"You mean, sex?"

"I mean sex."

"No, no, not yet."

"Not interested?"

"What? No...uh, I mean yes," Rolf said, now completely flustered. "Excuse me? What was the question?"

"The hunka-chunka. You not interested in that stuff?"

"I'm interested," he said, now looking at the world through very uncertain eyes.

"Ah. Well then."

"What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking."

+++++

They found out where to do laundry early the next morning and hauled a weeks worth of stuff up to the machines. Taggart called the lawyer while DIna and Rolf took Clyde to a park across the street and let him get reacquainted with all things leafy-green, and when that was finished Dina took them out to lunch at a place near the medical school. They gorged on smoked fish, cold salads, and warm bread, all finished off with a beer for Dina and Coke for those either too young or medically disqualified. She led them on a short tour of her old stomping grounds, and Rolf seemed to get a little more than interested in all things 'medicine' after that. Taggart wanted to get a new sailing jacket and overalls - because his old set was gradually getting a little too large...

So, they found a Helly-Hansen store and he picked up a new set - that made him look just like a giant Norwegian flag, though maybe not quite flapping in the breeze. Then he found a knitted wool ski hat that actually looked just like a Norwegian flag flapping in a breeze, so the look was now complete. After a brief stop at a nautical chart store they made their way back to the Bandit - and just in time for the afternoon edition of 'Let's Go Screw on the Flying Bridge' - Russian language edition. This broadcast included three men and at least a half dozen naked women - and one guest participant whose gender neither he nor Dina could readily identify. Rolf stared - really bug-eyed this time - as the show got underway, but Dina grabbed Taggart by the belt and hauled him below...

"Watching all that stuff is making me horny," she whispered in his ear.

"Well, okay, but do you wanna do it down here, or go up top and really get into the spirit of things?"

...but she was ripping his shorts off by then...

"Right," he said. "I keep forgetting you're the shy, retiring type..."

...and then she got to work...

"And into sword-swallowing too, I see..."

+++++

The IV snapped into his port with a startling crack, then the nurse set flow rates and helped him lay back in the recliner. Here - as in Bergen - the infusion room was packed with patients getting chemotherapy, only there must've been fifty chairs in this one. And almost every chair was occupied.

"What's going on here?" he asked the nurse. "Some kind of cancer epidemic?"

She turned and looked around the room. "It's not so bad today. Most mornings every chair is taken. All of these will have someone by ten. Then the afternoon appointments start at 1300."

"Jesus...how come so many?"

She shrugged. "Maybe because there are so many cancers - different kinds, I mean. And now so many people are exposed to things they weren't a hundred years ago."

"What's the cancer you treat the most here?"

"Oh, breast cancer, by a large number. This is what you have, no?"

"Yes, I drew the lucky number and got it too."

"Not so lucky, I think. You look pale, but your numbers do not look so bad. They added Avastin to your series today. Did they discuss side effects?"

"Briefly, yes."

"Then you know what to expect, no?"

"Nothing good."

"You won't feel bad today, maybe tomorrow, as well. You are American, are you not?"

"I am."

"Why here, and not at home?"

"My sailboat is my home."

"Really? How amazing. You sailed here?"

"I did."

"I was watching on television about an American who rescued a member of parliament near Bodø..."

"Yup, that was me."

"Really? You are a great celebrity, then!"

"That, on the other, is not me."

"What?"

"I am not a celebrity, great or otherwise."

"Ah, yes. I see. But, you keep on sailing?"

"Yup. Kind of like The Flying Dutchman."

"I do not know about this."

"It doesn't matter."

"Are you depressed?"

"Depressed? No, not at all. In fact, I'm having the time of my life."

"You are joking, yes?"

"No, I was serious. I am having a great time."

"But..."

"No buts. I just am. Sorry if that sounds obtuse..."

"Obtuse?"

"Insensitive. Nobody lives forever, darlin'. Might as well go out with a bang, ya know?"

"But, the treatments..."

"Yeah, I got the gist of all that. Say, why don't you come down to the boat tonight. There's someone down there just dying to meet someone like you?"

"Like me? Really?"

"Yeah. Let's call it a blind date...if you're not doing anything, I mean."

"No, no...I can come."

"Excellent. What time can you come?"

"After work...maybe around 1800?"

"Perfect. What kind of food do you like?"

"You know, Indian is my favorite."

"Really? How 'bout that...?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh...nothing. I was just thinking...it's been a while since I had decent Indian. Do you know a good place?"

"Yes, there are several in the city."

"Well, I can't wait."

+++++

He felt like Hell warmed over, and for some reason, his calves and ankles hurt most of all.

"It's the Avastin," Dina told him. "It cuts off vascularization around tumors, so with no blood supply, they can't grow. The downside is that it seems to affect healthy veins too, especially in the peripheral vascular network..."

"I think it's charming that you assume I know exactly what you just said."

"But...you do, do you not?"

"Yeah, I mean in a general sense. The mechanisms behind all that...? I doubt I'd understand that."

"And I won't bore you with the details. How is the nausea this time?"

"That new drug seems to be helping."

"Good. Are you sure you want Indian food again?"

"Yup. The truth of the matter is, well, my chemo nurse is coming down to join us?"

"What? Why...?"

He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. "I just thought Rolf could use the distraction, ya know? After the performance our Russian acrobatic team put on last night..."

"You are terrible..."

"Thank you very much," he said, grinning. "Besides, if Rolf strikes out, well, I've always wanted to try a three-way."

She shook her head, then ducked below to put on some tea. She came back up to the cockpit a few minutes later with two cups and a plate of scones.

"Did you bake these?"

"Yes, of course. Blueberry and walnut."

He broke off a corner and halfway expected a wave of nausea to hit - but no, nothing. He ate an entire scone and had two cups of tea, and with no reaction, he felt hopeful the night would go as planned.

Her name was Astrid and from first contact, Taggart could tell that Rolf was smitten. Meaning: Rolf turned into a typical fifteen-year-old, which is to say he turned into a tongue-tied clumsy oaf. He tried to impress the girl with stories of his exploits on the sea - showing off, in other words - and Taggart could tell Astrid was amused but not impressed - and for all the wrong reasons. At one point she got up to go to the WC and Taggart went to work.

"Rolf, you got to ease off, man. Be yourself but don't lay everything out there. Ask her about the things she likes, because girls get really bored listening to guys talk about how great they are."

"Okay, got it..."

Taggart had to give the kid credit. Rolf listened. He asked questions. He found common ground, and as a result, the second half of their evening turned kind of fun.

"So, where are you going next?" Astrid asked Rolf.

"I've got three more weeks of vacation, then it's back to school time. Henry, are we headed to Gothenburg next?"

"Yup. Round three of chemo there, then we are going to transit the Trollhätte Canal, then the Göta Canal on our way to Stockholm."

"That sounds amazing," she said. "I wish I could go on a trip like that."

"Me too," said the fifteen-year-old now surfing a cresting wave of testosterone.

Taggart bit his lip, Dina put her hand on his thigh and squeezed.

"When are you leaving Oslo?" Astrid asked.

"The day after tomorrow," the suddenly hopeful fifteen-year-old said, testosterone now oozing out of his eyes and ears.

"I'd have to call and ask my supervisor."

"Perhaps you could call her now?" Taggart asked; he felt Dina's fingernails digging into his flesh.

"You wouldn't mind if I came?"

Rolf was now sitting in a spreading puddle of the stuff, his eyes spinning like saucers, drool forming at the corners of his mouth...

"No, of course not," Henry added. "We'd love you to come." Dina's fingernails were, he felt sure, drawing blood now.

Astrid pulled out her phone and called into work. "I know it's short notice, but it is such a wonderful opportunity..."

Rolf's eyes rolled and disappeared from view.

"I can! Really! Ooh, thanks very much..."

Taggart looked at Rolf, wondered if his Parkinson's meds would help control the kid's sudden tremors...

Astrid put away her phone. "Well, I can come!"

"Excellent!" Taggart cried. "What do you say to that, Rolf?"

"Uh, may I be excused, please?" the kid said as he bolted for the head.

"Oh...this is just excellent!" Taggart added. "And Rolf is such a good teacher, too. You'll be a great sailor in just a few days!" He turned to Dina and leaned close, whispered in her ear: "Any harder and you'll hit an artery."